I used to subscribe to Wisden Cricket Monthly and in 1985 an advert caught my eye. “Pub team to tour Australia players wanted”. I decided to investigate and answered the call after which I was invited to play for them in a Sunday fixture in London. They were playing Tokyngton CC in North London who were a half decent side made up of mainly Sri Lankan cricketers. This was not pub cricket as I’d know it turning out for my own local pub on the odd occasion that they had a game but a standard akin to my own in the Berkshire leagues for Braywood CC at the time.
My one abiding memory of that game was fielding at 45 degrees backward of square when the bowler delivered a half tracker to the well set batsman. He spun on the delivery with a flourish and middled it straight at me travelling in Exocet fashion. I managed to hold onto it at the expense of bruised hands and thus was probably accepted into the fold. I took a couple of wickets and scored a dozen runs to add to my suitablity to tour with them.
We adjourned to The Washington pub in Belsize Park afterwards where the clubs prowess at socialising was demonstrated and I decided to sign up for the tour before returning to Paddington via the handily placed Belsize Park tube station after much refreshment. The pub was and still is frequented by cricketers of many origins including antipodean ones hence the trip down under was arranged by one of the regulars Bill James a travel agent from Sydney. John Emburey was a regular at the pub at the time and also had a tour to Australia that winter in pursuit of The Ashes in 1986 which was an added attraction of a visit there on ‘The Wash’ tour.
AUSTRALIA TOUR 1986-87
My one abiding memory of that game was fielding at 45 degrees backward of square when the bowler delivered a half tracker to the well set batsman. He spun on the delivery with a flourish and middled it straight at me travelling in Exocet fashion. I managed to hold onto it at the expense of bruised hands and thus was probably accepted into the fold. I took a couple of wickets and scored a dozen runs to add to my suitablity to tour with them. We adjourned to the Washington pub in Belsize Park afterwards where the clubs prowess at socialising was demonstrated and I decided to sign up for the tour before returning to Paddington via the handily placed Belsize Park tube station after much refreshment. The pub was and still is frequented by cricketers of many origins including antipodean ones hence the trip down under was arranged by one of the regulars Bill James a travel agent from Sydney.
Fifty Five Years of Cricket Memories 